Grenade launcher



Jan. 22, 1957 E. w. BRANDT 2,778,137

GRENADE LAUNCHER Filed Aug. 7, 1953 .LTA

l E M55/VVD?- IE I INVENToR.

mi Wifi; m 95 m Edgar William into said chamber on to the outside surface of Patented Jan. 22, 1957 2,77 8,137 GRENADE LUNCHER Brandt, Geneva,

Societe Anonyme Belge de Brussels, Belgium,

Switzerland, assigner to Macanique et dArmement, a corporation of Belgium Application August 7, 1953, Serial No. 372,950

Claims priority, application Luxemburg September 15, 1952 2 Claims. (Cl. 42-1) less in. operational tiring, owing to bad visibility or night conditions, it is always possible to make a mistake with `the cartridges, since ball cartridgeand grenade-firing may alternate.

The present invention aims at risk and rifle or forgets to remove from it, a ball cartridge at the time of tiring the grenade.

The grenade launcher of the present invention, which is intended to serve for tiring rifle or other firearm grenades, is of the type comprising -a tube serving as barrel and provided at its rear end with a manual fixing means connecting it rigidly to the lrearm.

housed in said chamber is secured to the wall of the latter by retaining means adapted to yield under the shock of an inadvertently tired ball cartridge and to drive said core towards the front where it is stopped at the front part of said chamber leading into the tube of the grenade launcher, while the ball is crushed inside a cavity provided at the rear of the core.

By virtue of this construction an error with cartridges therefore does not cause any accident tok the riileman. Moreover, the infantryrnan, knowing that he is protected from any explosion of the projectile at the muzzle of the gun, has coniidence in his weapon, andhis action and performance are improved.

According to one embodiment of the invention, the grenade launcher has two transverse apertures the core, between two successive longitudinal cavities in the latter. The retaining means preferably comprises a plurality of pins which are integral both with the launcher and with the core occupying said chamber.

p Thus a ball cartridge tired accidentally displaces the leading safety core towards the front, after shearing the pins, thus tridge lg'ase's 'can escape. Any risk 'of excess pressure in vthe barrel is thus avoided, and the grenade which falls in jfront of the muzzle does not explode and is not damaged, since its internal safety device can `be unlocked only under the action of an acceleration of a predetermined value, which in such case is not reached. The aforesaid metal core, which is preferably bi-ogival in shape, is hollowed at its front end so as to permit the ball which strikes it to penerate into said hollow, where it is crushed after having passed through a hood promotes the flow of the gases towards the periphery of the core during normal firing with the blank cartridge intended for tiring the grenade.

In order to enable the invention to be more readily understood, reference is made to the accompanying drawings which illustrate diagrammatically and by way of example one embodiment thereof and n which:

Figure 1 is a partial axial section on the line 1-1 of Fig. 4;

Figure 2 is a plan View, according to Figure 1;

partly cut away, of a launcher and Figure 4 is a section along .the line 4-4 of Figure 2.

1 denotes the barrel tube of the grenade launcher mounted at the end 2 of a rifle with the aid of a fixing device 3. An axial chamber 4 screwedon to the tube 1 at 5, serves as a housing forl an oblong metallic core 6 having ogival ends. Pins 7 penetrating into the body of the core 6 and passing through the ywall of the chamber 4 secure said core to said chamber.

The outside surface of the core 6 comprises longitudinal hollows 8 providing passages (four in the embodiment illustrated) between the core 1 and the wall of the chamber 4, the latter communicating with the outside through apertures 9 and 10. An axial and cylindrical inlet 11 provided in the core 6 opposite the end of the rifle is preferably closed by a hood 12 having a rounded head.

The launcher also has an elastic ring 13 serving to retain the grenade (not shown) when the latter is placed on the barrel tube 1. A sighting frame 14, adapted to pivot at 15, can be folded back. In the operative position (Figure l) the frame 14 masks the eld of View of the foresight 16 of the riile, s0 that the user automatically remembers to remove the grenade launcher when tiring ordinary ball cartridges.

The operation is as follows: Y

The rieman, after having placed a grenade on the barrel 1 of the launcher, sights with the aid of the frame 14 and lires. If he has used a blank cartridge, the propulsion gases on encountering the core 6 will diverge and pass through the longitudinal hollows 8 and then penetrate into the barrel-tube 1, projecting the grenade towards the target. If by error the cartridge is a ball cartridge, the ball will penetrate into the cavity 11 of the core 6, yielding a part of its kinetic energy to the latter. The pins 7 are sheared under the shock and the core 6 moves forward until it encounters the part of smaller diameter of the barrel 1, whilefthe gases escape through the transverse apertures 9 and 10 freed by the forward movement of the core.

What is claimed is:

l. A grenade launcher having a front portion to hold a grenade and a rear portion to be xedly attached to a gun barrel, said rear portion comprising a chamber of greater diameter than the internal caliber of said launcher, a core of generally oblong shape inside said chamber, frangible means to secure said core axially in said chamber, said core having longitudinal passages at its periphery for the shape of which Figure 3 is a section along the line 3 3 of Figure 2;

normally causing propulsion gases to diverge and pass through said longitudinal passages, and said 'core being adapted to stop an inadvertently red bullet in the launcher.

2. A grenade launcher as described in claim 1I in which o said core has a normally closed rear cavity for receiving an inadvertently iired bullet.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Benet June 21, 1898 Studler May 29, 1928 Brandt Mar. 7, 1933 Studler Apr. 6, 1937 

